Method and system for providing advertising through content specific nodes over the internet

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for providing advertising content over the Internet through a hierarchical content-specific node structure and pricing advertising delivery over each node independently. Independent delivery and pricing allows an advertiser to pay more for advertisements delivered to a narrowly targeted audience likely to be interested in the goods or services offered by the advertising entity and to pay less for advertisements directed at a more general audience who may or may not have an interest in the goods or services offered. The less content specific the node is, the less targeted the advertisement will be, and therefore, the less valuable the advertisement will be to the advertising entity. Targeted advertising to multiple levels of content specific nodes is enabled.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.10/309,332, filed on Dec. 4, 2002, which claims priority from aprovisional patent application filed on Jul. 16, 2002, entitled “Methodand system for providing advertising through content specific nodes overthe Internet” and having U.S. Application No. 60/396,003, still pending.These disclosures are expressly incorporated herein by reference intheir entireties.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to systems for and methods of providing targetedadvertising over a distributed content-based system of coordinatedcontent-specific nodes over the Internet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Targeted advertising has long been a goal of the companies who place andpay for advertisements. Advertisements can be expensive in any medium.Thus, companies generally would like to pay only for advertisements thatwill be viewed by a group of individuals likely to be interested in thatcompany's goods or services.

Over the Internet, one form of advertisement is a paid placement for asearch result in a search engine. In these systems, advertisers maychoose to offer a different amount for having an advertisement listed insearch results for a specific search term and the search resultsreturned by the search engine will be ranked among the advertisers whooffer an amount for a particular search term according to the amountoffered. For example, if a consumer searched on a paid listing searchengine for “airline tickets,” a list of airlines is generated withcorresponding URL listings so that the consumer can click on a listingand go to the website corresponding to that listing. Each advertiserassociated with those listings pays the search engine a certain amountof money for every “click-through” to the advertiser's website. Thehigher an advertiser's name appears on the list of search results, themore likely a user will click-through to that advertiser's provided URL(e.g., it's website). Often, as the cost per click-through for theadvertising company increases, the closer that company's listing is tothe top of the list of search results.

While the aforementioned existing systems allow for some targeting ofadvertising money, such systems fail to provide other targetedadvertising avenues over the Internet.

These and other drawbacks exist with current systems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a system of mappingInternet content areas (content nodes) at various levels withadvertising specific to the subject matter of the content node. Thesystem provides a mechanism for allowing advertising users to placeadvertisements through an interface that allows the advertiser to selectat least two different levels of content nodes from a dynamic andeditorial controlled hierarchy with the intent of placing advertisementsfor inclusion in those content nodes. The interface enables anadvertiser to bid for placement of the advertisement within abid-for-placement advertisement system within the content node andallows the advertiser to specify different bid amounts at differentlevels of specificity. For example, in a system that provides five nodelevels, the advertiser might bid $0.10 per click through for placementon every content node in the system, $0.12 per click through forplacement of its advertisement on one of several second-level nodes,$0.15 per click through for placement of its advertisement on one ofseveral third-level nodes, $0.17 per click through for placement of itsadvertisement on one of several fourth-level nodes, and $0.25 per clickthrough for placement of its advertisement on one of several fifth-levelnodes based on the content of the nodes selected and its nexus to theadvertisement being placed. By enabling an advertiser to specify a bidfor placement and providing greater specificity at different levels ofgranularity, the advertiser is able to self-select the most beneficialadvertising campaign by monitoring performance of its advertisements atdifferent levels of details. As a result, it can increase or decreaseits bid amount at the different levels to provide the mostcost-effective advertising system.

The content nodes are then mapped by the system with participatingcontent providers in a manner that gives the viewers of the contentnodes a contextual view of advertisements. The system stores andmaintains the relationships an advertiser has mapped between contentnodes and advertisements.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the system maps requests forplacement from advertisers into a hierarchy of content nodes in anincreasing level of targeting from a general level down to a specificweb page, depending on the selections by the advertiser. Content nodesmay be specific Internet content or any grouping of such content,including web pages, newsletters, chat, newsgroups, or any derivative ofsuch. Content nodes may have Titles, Descriptions, Depth Levels, Rules,and possible relationships with other content nodes as either a parentor a child depending on the depth.

The Title of the content node may be a short descriptor meant toidentify the type of information or communications the content areacontains. Conceptually the titles of any parent nodes may also be partof the node title descriptor. For example, a content node with a titleof “Vitamins” under a parent content node of “Pets” is different from acontent node with a title of “Vitamins” under a parent node of “Health.”In a preferred embodiment, the titles may be shorthanded in adirectory-like nomenclature, such as “Pets/Vitamins” and“Health/Vitamins.”

The description of the content node is a long descriptor meant to aid inidentifying to the advertiser the specifics of where an ad listingmapped to that content node might appear.

As the depth level of a content node increases, so does the targeting ofinterests of the user audience. By convention, given depths arereferenced with specific names but the nomenclature and number of depthswith specific names is variable and defined by the specifics andgranularity of content available from distributors.

Rules may be understood to be an abstraction of any business rules thatmight apply to mapping an ad listing to that given content node. Forexample, for a newsletter content node, the system may implement a rulerequiring an advertiser to have at least $2000 in their account to listan ad on that newsletter content node. Rules may also enforce minimumpurchase prices, such as $0.05 per click, if sold on a cost per click.Rules may also allow for inheritance from parent nodes. For example, agiven content node may not be allowed to be mapped on a cost per clickthat is less than or equal to the cost per click on the parent node.

A content node has definable relationships to other content nodes:whether it has a parent, children, or sibling content nodes. It is worthnoting that content nodes at the same depth may have different sets ofrelationships. For example, two sibling content nodes (content nodeswith the same parent content node) may or may not independently havechildren. Note this can and will make for possible asymmetrical contentnode hierarchies.

Conceptually, a top-level root content node exists which simplytranslates into a generic request for placement that is not targeted toany specific Internet content other than language (i.e., Englishlanguage). The top-level node allows advertisers to target a genericaudience on the Internet. Ad listings mapped at the top level may appearon the homepage of sites such as msn.com, yahoo.com, and about.com atthe same time. Top-level content nodes have no parent.

A channel level node may be understood to be a targeted, but somewhatgeneral, content area. It is used in content areas where the mostrudimentary interest is known but not the specifics of it. An example ofa channel level node may be “Parenting & Family.” In this case thecontent area indicates a user has a general interest in parenting orfamily but no more is known. Channel level content nodes have a toplevel node, and may further have sibling nodes and child nodes.

A subject matter level node may be understood to be a targeted contentarea. It is used in Internet content areas where a specific interest isknown. An example of a subject matter level node is “Parenting &Family/Pregnancy & Birth” where “Pregnancy & Birth” is the title of thesubject matter level node and “Parenting & Family” is the title of theparent, channel level node. In this case, the content on the subjectmatter level node is designed for users who have a specific interest in“Pregnancy & Birth.” An advertiser mapping to this content node maydesire to place an advertisement on the subject matter level contentnode to be viewed by end users accessing that subject matter levelcontent node. Subject matter level content nodes have a parent node andmay also have sibling nodes and child nodes.

A document level node is defined as the most targeted of content unitsin this embodiment. The document level is used in targeting a specificpiece of content that is truly unique. An example of a document levelcontent node is targeted to a specific URL, or a specific newslettermailing only. An example of a document level node is “Parenting &Family/Pregnancy & Birth/Breastfeeding” where “Breastfeeding” is theactual title of the document level content node, “Pregnancy & Birth” isthe actual title of the of the parent, subject matter content node, and“Parenting & Family” is the title of the channel level content node. Anadvertiser mapping to this content node might desire advertising on theBreastfeeding pages contained at pregnancy.about.com site, as anexample. Document level content nodes may be such that they do not havechildren, but may have siblings or parents.

Clearly, in other embodiments, there may be additional levels of nodeswith additional specificity regarding the content. This system whichallows for placement of advertisements over nodes with varying levels ofcontent specificity enables an advertiser to offer a higher amount foradvertisements where the audience is likely to be persons interested inpurchases the goods or services advertised. Additionally, the advertisermay also place an advertisement where the content is more tangentiallyrelated to the goods and services being offered, and thus less likely togenerate sales. This allows the advertiser more flexibility in offeringto place advertisements, which enables the advertiser to morespecifically target its audience. Generally, the more an advertisementis targeted to viewers likely to become buyers, the more value theadvertiser gets for its advertising dollar. The present invention alsohas the advantage of allowing the advertiser to disseminate itsadvertisements broadly, or without targeting. The advertiser may offer alower amount for this untargeted advertising, though, since it is lesslikely to generate sales.

An Internet advertising system for receiving advertisement informationfrom advertisers for publication through a multi-node hierarchicalcontent-based system, the Internet advertising system has an interactivedatabase server that receives advertisement listing information from aplurality of advertiser user systems connecting to the Internetadvertising system over the Internet, the advertisement listinginformation comprising an advertisement title and URL, a selection ofone or more node levels with which the advertisement listing informationis to be associated, and a bid amount for each node level selected, adatabase that stores the advertisement listings, and a network fileserver that delivers web page content and advertisement listings to aplurality of end users requesting nodes in the multi-node hierarchicalsystem, the content and advertisement listings delivered being based onthe node selected by an end user. The URL provided may specify thetarget web page to be delivered to the end user upon selection of theadvertising listing from the web page delivered to the end user. Anetwork file server may deliver advertisement listings for a specificrequested node and may do so based on a ranking of advertisementlistings associated with the particular node as well as the advertisinglistings for higher-level nodes. To maintain quality control and ensuresome relationship between the advertisement listing and the node withwhich an advertiser seeks to have it associated, the system may furtherprovide a set of rules applicable to the Internet advertising system tobe applied by a rule checking module that determines whether the offeredadvertisement complies with the set of rules, and if not, provides thatinformation to a denial transmission module that transmits a refusal toany desired advertisement that fails to comply with the set of rules.

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate various embodiments of theinvention and, together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples and advantages of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a hierarchical structure of content nodesaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a screenshot representing a step of signing up according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a screenshot representing a step of listing an advertisementon the internet associated with a search term according to an embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a screenshot representing a confirmation step of listing anadvertisement on the internet associated with a search term according toan embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a screenshot representing a channel level node selection stepof listing an advertisement on level nodes according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 6 is a screenshot representing a subject level node selection stepof listing an advertisement on level nodes according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 7 is a screenshot representing a document level node selection stepof listing an advertisement on level nodes according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 8 is a screenshot representing a confirm listings step of placingan advertisement on level nodes according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 9 is a screenshot representing an enter detailed listing step ofplacing an advertisement on level nodes according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 10 is a screenshot representing a confirm bids step of listing anadvertisement on level nodes according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 11 is a screenshot representing a provide contact information stepof listing an advertisement on level nodes according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 12 is a screenshot representing a provide billing information stepof listing an advertisement on level nodes according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 13 is a screenshot representing a step of registering an account inorder to list an advertisement on level nodes according to an embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram representing a system whereby anadvertiser might list advertisements in subject matter specific nodeswithin a structure of subject matter specific nodes according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a screenshot representing advertisements listed in a subjectmatter specific node within a structure of subject matter specific nodesaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a screenshot representing advertisements listed in a subjectmatter specific node within a structure of subject matter specific nodesaccording to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

An advertising system is provided that allows an advertiser to placedifferent bid amounts at different levels of a multi-level hierarchicalstructure of content specific nodes. This advertising system enables anadvertiser to customize its bidding and expenditures within acontent-based system, although the user may bid on keyword-basedadvertising as well, as explained below. For purposes of context, anexample of a hierarchical structure of content nodes is depicted in FIG.1, although this is not intended to be exclusive of the type ofhierarchical system for which embodiments of the present invention maybe applicable.

According to the embodiment depicted in FIG. 1, the top level node 100may correspond to a level of specificity such as the language of thetext on the website. For example, an advertiser that sells basketballsmay choose the top level node of English from among top level nodesEnglish, Chinese, and Spanish because ads for basketballs on pages inthe English language field of content may be judged more likely togenerate a sale to viewers of the ad than to viewers of pages in theChinese language. It should be appreciated, as described later, that anadvertiser may advertise at all top-level nodes, with different bids foreach level. In general, though, the user who wishes to advertise on oneor more content level nodes may select a top level node 100 for eachlisting. For example, it may be desirable for the system to always onlylist ads in the same language as the content on a page. So, the systemmay prompt an advertiser to select one top level node 100, or thelanguage of the ad, for each listing.

After selecting a top level node 100, and based upon that selection, theuser who wishes to more specifically target its audience on one or morecontent nodes may choose channel level nodes 110 which specify furtherthe subject matter of the desired listing. For example, the advertiserthat sells basketballs may choose the channel level node 110 of Sportsfrom among channel level nodes 110 of Sports, Health, Entertainment, andReligion because ads for basketballs on pages with Sports content aremore likely to be relevant to viewers of those pages than to viewers ofpages with Religion content. The advertiser may also desire to list itsad in Health as well, in order to be seen by recreational basketballplayers. Although, the advertiser may judge that an ad placed withHealth content is likely to draw fewer viewers to click-through. So theadvertiser may offer a smaller amount to place an ad on a page withHealth content than the amount the advertiser offered for placement on apage with Sports content.

Furthermore, after selecting a channel level node 110 and based uponthat selection, the advertiser who wishes to further target its audienceusing coordinated content-specific nodes may choose a subject level node120 which specifies further the subject matter of the desired listingand even further, a document level node 130. For example, the advertiserthat sells basketballs may choose a subject level node 120 of Basketballfrom among subject level nodes 120 of Football, Baseball, Basketball,and Soccer. Moreover, the advertiser may further target its audience bychoosing a document level node 130 of Equipment from among documentlevel nodes 130 of NBA, WNBA, NCAA, Rules, Statistics, and Equipment.Accordingly, the advertiser may offer a higher amount for placement asthe first listing on the Equipment document level node than on the Rulesdocument level node because the advertiser may judge that a user viewingcontent related to basketball equipment is more likely to be interestedin purchasing basketballs than a user viewing content related to therules of basketball.

Also, the advertiser may desire the first placement on all documentlevel nodes 130 with a subject level node 120 of Basketball. Theadvertiser may place an offer for that subject level node according toan embodiment of the present invention. Thus, an advertising system isprovided that allows an advertiser to place different bid amounts atdifferent levels of a multi-level hierarchical content-based system.

According to the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 1, thedocument level node 130 may be the most specific level within thehierarchical structure. However, any number of additional levels ofspecificity may exist between the top level node 100 and the documentlevel node 130. According to an embodiment of the present invention,once the listing is established the listing may be stored in arelational database with a corresponding directory. Other databasestructures may also be used as would be appreciated by those in the art,including object-oriented databases, flat files, linked lists and otherforms of storage.

For example, if the advertiser who wishes to sell basketballs places thehighest amount as an offer for ad placement on the Equipment documentlevel node 130, the Basketball subject level node 120, the Sportschannel level node 110, and the English language top level node 100, thelisting may be stored as “English\Sports\Basketball\Equipment\1” in adatabase (e.g., relational database). The advertiser may select thesubject matter, or node, levels shown in FIG. 1 by completing the stepsshown in FIGS. 2 through 13.

FIG. 2 is a screenshot representing an embodiment of a graphical userinterface enabling a user to take the step of “signing up” 200 accordingto an embodiment of the present invention. An advertiser user desiringto place an advertisement in the multi-node content hierarchical systemmay access an advertising system graphical user interface of FIG. 2 viaa secured Internet connection. The graphical user interface of FIG. 2may enable any number of advertising users to initiate, manage, andmodify advertisements they place on the hierarchical system. FIG. 2enables an advertising user to input a username 210 and password 220 tocreate a safe and secure system. Although username/password is shown,other authentication techniques may also be required, including the useof cookies, IP address verification, Pubic Key Infrastructure (PKI)authentication, encryption, and any other security measure usable today.

In addition to providing a secure method of gaining access, theadvertisement system may also allow an advertiser to offer to pay anamount for placement of an ad when an end user enters certain,enumerated search terms through a search feature of the multi-nodehierarchical content-based system. This step may be in addition toplacing an ad using the content-based hierarchical system of nodes. FIG.3 is a screenshot representing an embodiment of a graphical userinterface enabling a user to take the step of “placing an advertisementon the Internet associated with a search term” 300 according to anembodiment of the present invention. A user may be enabled to input ageneral search term 310, representing a highest level subject mattercorresponding to the desired advertisement. Furthermore, the advertiseruser enter a listing title 320 for the advertising to be listed. Thelisting title may represent the title the user desiring advertisingwishes to display on the advertisement. For example, if the userdesiring advertising wishes to sell breast pumps manufactured by acompany under the name of “B-P” the listing title may be “breast pumpsfor sale” or “B-P breast pumps for sale” or other descriptivealternates. The advertising user may also input a display URL 330, whichmay represent the location of the general website for the click through.For example, the B-P user may input a display URL 330 of www.b-p.com.Also, the advertising user may input a targeted URL 340, which mayrepresent the actual URL of the site the end-user will be directed to ifthey click on the advertisement. The targeted URL may differ from thedisplay URL 330, for example, by specifying the exact location of a pageto be retrieved for the end-user if the end-user selects theadvertisement, and it may refer to the page of a particular model breastpump on sale (e.g., www.b-p.com\modelB.html). In another embodiment,only a single URL is input and the same URL that is displayed is the URLof the site the end-user may be used as the target URL upon selection ofthe advertisement by an end-user in the multi-node hierarchicalcontent-based system. In the present embodiment, the user desiringadvertising may also input a description of the goods or services beingadvertised 350. Further, the user desiring advertising may submit aprice 360. In one embodiment of the present invention, the pricing ofthe advertisements is accomplished via a bidding system. Each proposedadvertisement listing has a bid price associated with it. In thisembodiment, listings are subsequently listed in descending order of bidprices for the specific level being displayed. The prices may be a perclick through price or a flat rate. The proposed listing as input inthis step of the process may be seen by the end user in the proper orderwhen the end user searches the web site for the search term or terms.

The advertisement system may also allow an advertiser to verify an adlisting entered and its corresponding amount offered in a confirmationstep. This step may be in addition to placing an ad using thecontent-based hierarchical system of nodes. This step may also allow theadvertiser to see how the amount offered compares with amounts offeredby other advertisers. FIG. 4 is a screenshot representing an embodimentof a graphical user interface enabling an advertiser to take the“confirmation step of listing an advertisement on the Internetassociated with a search term” 400. This step allows the user desiringadvertising to see what position their ads will hold in the descendingorder of advertisements based upon the pricing previously submitted,also referred to as the ad's rank 410. If the user desiring advertisingis not satisfied with the rank 410 shown, or otherwise desires to changeanything associated with the ad listing, the user may accomplish this bychoosing the edit button 420 associated with that particular listing.

Subsequently, the advertisement system may allow an advertiser to choosea high level subject matter where the advertiser would like to have anad appear on pages with content on that general subject matter. FIG. 5is a screenshot representing an embodiment of a graphical user interfaceenabling a user to take the “channel level node selection” step 500 oflisting an advertisement on level nodes according to the presentinvention. In this step the system may use the search terms previouslyentered to suggest document level nodes 510. This option may beaccomplished under “Choose Categories Based Upon Keyword.”Alternatively, the user desiring advertising may specify a categoryappropriate to the goods or services advertised under Channel LevelNodes 520. Continuing the example of the breast pump manufacturerdesiring advertising, the user may select “Parenting and Family” as theChannel Level Node. The screenshot shows sample general subject matters.This list is not meant to be all inclusive. Any other subject mattertopic may be appropriate.

Furthermore, the advertisement system may allow an advertiser to selecta narrower subject matter where the advertiser would like to have an adappear on pages with content on that same subject matter. FIG. 6 is ascreenshot representing an embodiment of a graphical user interfaceenabling an advertiser to take the “subject level node selection” step600 of listing an advertisement on level nodes according to the presentinvention. At 610, the system may use the search terms previouslyentered to again suggest document level nodes. This option may beaccomplished under “Choose Categories Based Upon Keyword.” Also, theuser desiring advertising may specify a category appropriate to thegoods or services advertised under Subject Level Nodes at 620.Continuing the example of the breast pump manufacturer desiringadvertising, the user may select “Pregnancy/Birth” as the Subject LevelNode. The screenshot shows sample subject levels. This list is not meantto be all inclusive. Any other subject matter topic may be appropriateas long as it is more specific than the subject matters listed aschannel level nodes. The listing options that appear under the subjectlevel nodes 620 depend upon what selection the user desiring advertisingmade under the channel level node 520.

Moreover, the advertisement system may allow an advertiser to select astill narrower subject matter where the advertiser would like to have anad appear on pages with content on that same subject matter. FIG. 7 is ascreenshot representing an embodiment of a graphical user interfaceenabling an advertiser to taker the “document level node selection” step700 of listing an advertisement on level nodes according to the presentinvention. In this step the system may use the search terms previouslyentered to suggest document level nodes 710. This option may beaccomplished under “Choose Categories Based Upon Keyword.”Alternatively, the user desiring advertising may specify a categoryappropriate to the goods or services advertised under Document LevelNodes 720. Continuing the example of the breast pump manufacturerdesiring advertising, the user may select “Breastfeeding” as theDocument Level Node. The screenshot shows sample general subjectmatters. This list is not meant to be all inclusive. Any other subjectmatter topic may be appropriate as long as it is more specific than thesubject matters listed as subject level nodes. The listing options thatappear under the document level nodes 720 depend upon what selection theuser desiring advertising made under the subject level node 620.

Once the advertisement system has allowed an advertiser to sufficientlydefine at least one node within a hierarchical subject matter structurewhere the advertiser seeks to place ads, the system may allow theadvertiser to verify that hierarchical subject matter structure. FIG. 8is a screenshot representing an embodiment of a graphical user interfaceenabling an advertiser to take the “confirm listings” step 800 ofplacing an advertisement on level nodes according to the presentinvention. If listings appear that the user desiring advertising doesnot wish to purchase, the user may delist them by unchecking thecorresponding box, or return and edit the hierarchical structure for alisting.

Additionally, the advertisement system may allow an advertiser to enterinformation detailing the items of information to be placed in ads theadvertiser is attempting to list on the advertisement system. FIG. 9 isa screenshot representing an embodiment of a graphical user interfaceenabling advertiser to complete the “enter detailed listing” step 900 ofplacing an advertisement on level nodes according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. This step must be accomplished for each desireddocument level node listing. In the preferred embodiment the relationalstructure of the nodes chosen is represented in the listing name shownat the top of the screenshot 910. The user may then input a listingtitle 920, a display URL 930, a targeted URL 940, a description 950 anda price 960. It is understood that various other information may belisted in an ad and that these items of information are not meant to beexclusive of other items of information.

Furthermore, the advertisement system may enable the advertiser to checkthe items of information entered thus far for accuracy, or otherwisegive the advertiser an opportunity to adjust the hierarchical structure,or the amount offered on any given listing entered prior to this step.FIG. 10 is a screenshot representing an embodiment of a graphical userinterface enabling an advertiser to take the “confirm bids” step 1000 oflisting an advertisement on level nodes according to the presentinvention. Once the step represented in FIG. 9 is accomplished for eachdesired document level node listing, the listings may be displayed onthe screen. Along with the information input by the user desiringadvertising 1010, the system may also display the rank 1020 the userwould occupy with the price previously submitted for each listing. Thisstep shows the benefits of the present invention. For example, thebreast pump manufacturer would likely be willing to pay more to belisted first on the breast feeding document level node, than on thepregnancy document level node. An end-user accessing documents relatedto breast feeding is more likely to be in the market for a breast pumpthan any given end-user accessing pregnancy, in the mind of theadvertiser. Thus, the user desiring advertising has bid more to achievethe first position in that breast feeding document level. If the user isnot happy with the rank and prices, the user may edit the listings.

Also, the advertisement system may obtain and store information on anadvertiser attempting to place an ad on the system. FIG. 11 is ascreenshot representing an embodiment of a graphical interface enablingan advertiser to take the “provide contact information” step 1100 oflisting an advertisement on level nodes according to the presentinvention. This contact information may include any or none of thefollowing information relating to the user desiring advertising: firstname 1110, last name 1120, company name 1130, street address 1140, city1150, state 1160, zip code 1170, country 1180, email address 1190, phonenumber 1115, fax number 1125, and industry 1135. In alternateembodiments any number of other pieces of information regarding the userdesiring advertising may be requested in this step. The advertisementsystem may use this information to contact an advertiser when there isan ad listing's rank has been changed. Alternatively, the advertisementsystem may periodically update an advertiser on the status of a listing.

Similarly, the advertisement system may allow an advertiser to store ameans of payment or other such billing information, as a means for theadvertisement system to receive payment. FIG. 12 is a screenshotrepresenting an embodiment of a graphical user interface enabling anadvertiser to take the “provide billing information” step 1200 oflisting an advertisement on level nodes according to the presentinvention. In the preferred embodiment, the user desiring advertisingmay enter a credit card or other financial account number 1210 thatwould enable automatic periodic billing by the system. In otherembodiments, the system may periodically generate physical invoiceswhich are mailed to the advertiser. FIG. 12 also shows an option wherethe user may choose to enable “account auto replenish” 1220. Thisfeature allows the system to charge the user before any advertisingexpenses are actually incurred. The system charges a preset amount 1230to the user's billing card whenever the user's account balance falls toa certain amount 1240. In this step, the user may also input theirbilling address 1250.

Moreover, the advertisement system may enable an advertiser to view andedit, if desired, any information thus far sent to the advertisementsystem. Accordingly, FIG. 13 is a screenshot representing an embodimentof a graphical user interface enabling an advertiser to take the step of“registering an account” 1300 in order to list an advertisement on levelnodes according to the present invention. This step may be theadvertiser's final opportunity to make changes to the listings 1310,contact information 1320, or billing information 1330. Once theadvertiser takes this step and registers the listings, theadvertisements are then placed according to their node structure on theappropriate document level listings.

It should be appreciated that the advertiser may place multipleadvertisements, may similar or identical advertisements on manydifferent nodes within the system and may thus be provided theopportunity to run analyses to determine the most cost-effectiveadvertising combination within the multi-node hierarchical system. Itmay be found, for example, that a $0.10 per click-through bid at channellevel node and a $0.50 bid on one specific document level node producesthe most hits to the advertisements and/or the most revenue from thehits.

To appreciate how the advertisements thus placed may be distributed,FIG. 14 is provided. FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram representing anadvertisement system whereby an advertiser is enabled to list ads oncontent specific pages according to varying levels of subject matterspecificity, such as through the various embodiments depicted in FIGS.2-13. Multiple advertiser systems 1410 may connect to the Internet viaan http connection 1415 and access the advertisement system. The httpconnection 1415 may be a secure one (https), if desired, although othersecurity measures may also be utilized, such as described above. Anadvertiser system 1410 may access a database 1465 of content specificityvia a database server 1425. Database server 1425 may provide softwareoperations to interactively provide the graphical user interfacespresented in the example embodiments of FIGS. 2-13, receive content fromthose graphical user interfaces, store the content into the database andthen provide subsequent error messages, or appropriate confirmationmessages. The database server may also sequence the pages to the userbased on a predetermined relationship between the graphical userinterface pages shown. One example of how this may be accomplished isthrough the database server reading and writing to a Content ObjectTable Database 1435 where advertisements associated with content may bestored. Furthermore, the database server 1425 may enable the advertiserto read the Rule Table Database 1430, which may provide artificialsystem limitations regarding the listing of advertisements. Theseartificial system limitations may be rules designed to generate thehighest profitability from a business standpoint. For example, based onthe user's advertisement and subject matter, the system may recommend anadvertising combination to maximize their advertising effectiveness. Itshould be appreciated that although a single network file server,database server, content object table and rule table are depicted inFIG. 14, multiple such object may be provided for purposes ofscalability and optimization of the operations of the system.

When an advertiser system 1410 offers an amount for an ad listing, thatoffer may be stored in the Content Object Table Database 1435.Periodically, the Network File Server 1440 accesses the ads stored inthe Content Object Table Database 1435 via the Database Server 1425 andwrites them to the Structured Content Database 1465.

Additionally, multiple end users 1445 may connect via the Internet tovarious distribution partners to the multi-node hierarchicalcontent-based system's content. For example, the multi-node hierarchicalcontent-based system may be presented as a web site, such as theassignee of the present invention, About.com at www.about.com. Also,various partners of the host system may engage the host for purposes ofproviding some or all of the content on their web sites. For example, aweb site about Women's issues may desire to distribute the subject levelnode(s) related to women's issues. The advertisements associated withthose nodes may then be delivered along with the content for those nodesthrough the distribution partner to the end user over the Internet.

A load balancer 1450 may monitor the multiple internet connections,including requests to the server from one or more distribution partners.Via a web server, these multiple users may look for the content from themulti-node hierarchical content-based system. These multiple users 1445may look for documents using the hierarchical node structure or byinputting search key words. In either case, the Network file server 1440may read these requests 1455 and provide pages with related contentalong with the listings associated with that document. Thus theadvertisement system illustrated in FIG. 14 enables an advertiser tooffer an amount for ad placement on one content specific node, differentfrom the amount offered for placement on another content specific nodeless likely to generate sales.

Once the advertisement system has accepted offers for placement of adson a particular node, the advertisement system may publish those ads tothe content specific node. For example, those ad listings may bepublished to a website, as mentioned above. For example, adocument-level node may contain a single web page with informationalcontent, links, graphics, chat, and other features related to thesubject level, channel level and top level. Within that web page, someor all of the advertisers who placed ads for that level of specificitymay be displayed. FIG. 15 is a screenshot representing a singledocument-level node web page related to a document level node. That webpage may be provided with the highest three bidders for thatdocument-level, including the highest bidders for the higher-levelnodes. Therefore, for example, is one advertiser bids $0.25 for itsadvertisement to be placed within the channel level, then its rank forevery web page displayed within that channel would be determined basedon a bid of $0.25, unless it has a higher (or lower) bid for a specificpage within that structure.

The URL for the document level node may be displayed at URL section1510. This URL may be unique for each content based node, and may alsobe represented in a relational directory format. In the example shown inFIG. 15, the viewer has selected the Parenting & Family channel levelnode 1520, the Pregnancy & Birth subject matter level node 1530, and theBreastfeeding document level node 1540. As a result, the viewer hasreceived content 1550 on the subject matter of the document level nodeselected, in this case, an article entitled “The Benefits ofBreastfeeding Your Children.”

In addition to receiving the content 1550 on the subject matter of thedocument level node, the viewer has also received three ad listings,1570, 1580 and 1590. An advertiser who wishes to sell B-P pumps has bidthe highest amount for placement on this node. Therefore, thatadvertiser's listing is listed first. The ad listing may include a Title1555, “B-P breast pumps for sale”; a Description 1560, “Purchase now . .. limited time offer on B-P breast pumps”; and a Display URL 1565,“www.b-p.com\modelB.” The display URL may show the viewer where theywill be redirected if they click on the ad listing. In this example, theadvertiser wishing to sell B-P breast pumps may have offered 12 centsper click-through for placement on this node. Whereas, the ad listingsin positions 2 and 3, 1580 and 1590 have offered less. While theadvertiser of B-P breast pumps may be willing to offer more for numberone placement on this particular node because the viewers are likely tobecome customers, the advertiser may desire placement on tangentiallyrelated nodes and not be willing to offer an amount as high for thatplacement.

For example, with the present invention the same advertiser may offer toplace the same ad listing on a node with content related to gettingpregnant for a smaller amount than he offered for listing on the nodewith content related to breastfeeding. FIG. 16 is a screenshotrepresenting advertisements listed in a subject matter specific noderelated to getting pregnant within a structure of subject matterspecific nodes according to the present invention. The URL where the adsare published may be shown at 1610. This URL may be unique for eachcontent based node, and may also be represented in a relationaldirectory format. In the example shown in FIG. 16, the viewer hasselected the Parenting & Family channel level node 1620, the Pregnancy &Birth subject matter level node 1630, and the Getting Pregnant documentlevel node 1640. As a result, the viewer has received content 1650 onthe subject matter of the document level node selected, in this case, anovulation calendar.

In addition to receiving the content 1650 on the subject matter ofgetting pregnant, the viewer has also received three ad listings, 1670,1680 and 1690. The advertiser who wishes to sell B-P pumps has bid threecents per click-through for placement on this node. Three cents perclick-through is not the highest amount offered for placement on thisnode. Therefore, the B-P breast pump listing 1690 is not listed first.The ad listings in positions 1 and 2, 1670 and 1680 have offered less.

Thus, the advertisement system has enabled an advertiser to offer anamount for placing an advertisement on pages with certain content, whichmay be different from an amount offered for placing the sameadvertisement on pages with other subject matter content. This allows anadvertiser to spend their advertising money on being seen by the viewerswho are most likely to become purchasers. This is advantageous to theadvertiser because it will allow diversification of advertising and moreappropriate pricing. The advertisement system will allow moreadvertisers to have the highest rank on the pages that are most relevantto their sales. Therefore, the ads will be seen by more potentialbuyers, and less likely to be seen by viewers uninterested in the goodsand services being advertised, and thus the advertisement system of thepresent invention may offer higher sales for the advertiser for the sameamount of money spent on advertising with pre-existing systems.

While the foregoing description includes details and specificities, itshould be understood that such details and specificities have beenincluded for the purposes of explanation only, and are not to beinterpreted as limitations of the present invention. Many modificationsto the embodiments described above can be made without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the invention, as it is intended to beencompassed by the following claims and their legal equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for receiving advertisement informationfrom advertisers, the method implemented by a server system andcomprising: sending, through a communication interface, a multi-levelrepresentation of at least a portion of a hierarchy of content nodes toa plurality of advertiser user systems to facilitate selection of one ormore of the content nodes, each content node associated with at leastone content topic, wherein each respective content node comprises aplurality of web pages from different web sites; receiving, through thecommunication interface, advertisement listing information comprising aplurality of bids associated with an advertisement, the advertisementassociated with one or more content topics, each bid associated with atleast one content node of the hierarchy of content nodes that isassociated with at least one of the one or more content topics; andserving, using one or more data processors, the advertisement, for eachcontent node, based on the bid associated with the respective contentnode relative to other bids associated with other advertisements for therespective content node for placement on the web pages of the respectivecontent node.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving,through the communication interface, the advertisement listinginformation from a plurality of advertiser users over a network, theadvertisement listing information comprising a title and a targetlocation.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising rankingadvertisements based on a monetary value associated with each contenttopic.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining amonetary value to be charged to an entity associated with theadvertisement, the monetary value being based on a bid amount.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the communication interface is part of afirst server, and at least one of the data processors is part of asecond server.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the representation ofthe content node hierarchy comprises at least three levels.
 7. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the target location is provided as a URL thatspecifies a target web page to be delivered to an end user uponselection of an advertising listing from a web page delivered to the enduser.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting a list ofadvertisement listings based on ranking bid amounts associated with aparticular node requested by an end user.
 9. The method of claim 8,further comprising selecting advertisement listings for the particularnode based on ranking the bid amounts associated with the particularnode and at least one higher level node based on a hierarchicalstructure of the content nodes.
 10. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising selecting a list of advertising listings based on ranking bidamounts associated with a particular node and all other higher levelnodes based on the hierarchical structure of the content nodes.
 11. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising accepting payment for serving theadvertisement on the individual nodes based on the bid amounts.
 12. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: storing a set of rules;determining that a proposed advertisement fails to comply with the setof rules; and refusing the proposed advertisement.
 13. An advertisingsystem for receiving advertisement information from advertisers forpublication through a multi-node hierarchical content-based system, thesystem comprising: a communication interface for: sending, through thecommunication interface, a multi-level representation of at least aportion of a hierarchy of content nodes to a plurality of advertiseruser systems to facilitate selection of one or more of the contentnodes, each content node associated with at least one content topic,wherein each respective content node comprises a plurality of web pagesfrom different web sites; receiving, through the communicationinterface, advertisement listing information comprising a plurality ofbids associated with an advertisement, the advertisement associated withone or more content topics, each bid associated with at least onecontent node of the hierarchy of content nodes that is associated withat least one of the one or more content topics; and serving, using oneor more data processors, the advertisement, for each content node, basedon the bid associated with the respective content node relative to otherbids associated with other advertisements for the respective contentnode for placement on the web pages of the respective content node. 14.The advertising system of claim 13, wherein the communication interfacereceives the advertisement listing information from a plurality ofadvertiser users over a network, the advertisement listing informationcomprising a title and a target location.
 15. The advertising system ofclaim 13, wherein advertisements are ranked based on a monetary valueassociated with each content topic.
 16. The advertising system of claim13, a monetary value to be charged to an entity associated with theadvertisement is determined, the monetary value being based on a bidamount.
 17. The advertising system of claim 13, wherein therepresentation of the content node hierarchy comprises at least threelevels.
 18. The advertising system of claim 14, wherein the targetlocation is provided as a URL that specifies a target web page to bedelivered to an end user upon selection of an advertising listing from aweb page delivered to the end user.
 19. The advertising system of claim13, wherein a list of advertisement listings is selected based onranking bid amounts associated with a particular node requested by anend user.
 20. The advertising system of claim 19, wherein advertisementlistings for the particular node are selected based on ranking the bidamounts associated with the particular node and at least one higherlevel node based on a hierarchical structure of the content nodes. 21.The advertising system of claim 13, wherein a list of advertisinglistings is selected based on ranking bid amounts associated with aparticular node and all other higher level nodes based on thehierarchical structure of the content nodes.
 22. The advertising systemof claim 13, wherein payment for serving the advertisement on theindividual nodes is accepted based on the bid amounts.
 23. Theadvertising system of claim 13, wherein a set of rules is stored in thecomputer storage device, and the server determines that a proposedadvertisement fails to comply with the set of rules, and refuses theproposed advertisement.